When out talking to members of the public, I’m hearing more and more often lately that we need to focus more on fixing and maintaining the transportation infrastructure that we have, rather than building new. This article from Economix suggests “Fix It First, Expand It Second, Reward It Third” and mentions another sentiment I’ve been hearing more often lately, that we should be doing more public-private partnerships. What do you think; fix it and they will come, as the article title says?
That article is right on, fix the streets we have before building new ones, there are so many that need repairs now. Fixing Market in Hillyard seems to have brought more traffic to Hillyard, so maybe fixing others will help also.
I talked to Hillyard business owners a while after construction was complete and they said that they had indeed noticed an increase in business from before the start of construction.
This leads me to remind everyone that the City's Street Bond program will be coming to an end in two years and they will be trying to get another bond passed to continue the program. Keep in mind when you vote that, without a street bond, there won't be a whole lot more streets getting fixed unless another additional revenue source is created.